Peer Coaching: Catalyst for 21st Century LearningJanuary, 2011Les Foltos

How Do We Prepare Students for Their Future?

• Prepare teachers to offer 21st Century learning opportunities

What Improves Student Learning?

• “The only way to improve outcomes is to improve instruction.” • Barber & Mourshed 2007. p 26

• “The quality of the education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.”

• Barber & Mourshed 2007. p 16

Bringing Innovation to Scale

• Teachers who adopt innovation are those “who are intrinsically motivated…” About 25% of teachers.- Elmore, R. (2004), p28

• Elmore may be too optimistic

• Experiences of 70 Microsoft innovative educators from around world

Providing Ferry Service To Our Isolated Islands of Excellence

• What professional learning will help all teachers adapt and adopt innovative learning activities?

Research Findings

• On the job, job-embedded training

• Focused on classroom activities

• Long-term, ongoing

• Highly collaborative environment

• Structured to offer teachers chances to learn from others

Collaboration is Essential

• “It is time for our education workforce to engage in learning the way other professionals do—continually, collaboratively, and on the job—to address common problems and crucial challenges where they work.” - Former North Carolina Governor James Hunt (Darling-

Hammond, 2009, p. 2)

So is Coaching

Top performing school systems understand that to improve instruction you need to use the following interventions:

- Coach classroom practice

- Move teacher training to the classroom

- Develop stronger school leaders

- Enable teachers to learn from one another• Barber & Mourshed 2007

Why is Coaching Critical?

• Common to hear talk about Professional Learning Communities as the key to effective collaboration.

• Need a skilled catalyst to make communities effective

Coaches As Catalyst

• Providing just-in-time, just enough advice or training

• Planning learning activities with teachers

• Modeling or team teaching and reflection

• Observing teachers and encouraging reflection on learning activities

Critical Coaching Skills

• Communications and collaboration skills

• Lesson Design

• ICT Integration

What Makes Coaches Successful? How they Coach

• Facilitator - Planning and leading meetings, activities, and staff development in one-on-one, small group, or large group situations.

• Collaborator - Working together with colleagues to plan, implement, and evaluate activities.

• Expert - Acting as a subject matter expert on a variety of topics.

• Catalyst – Use communications skills that encourage teachers to think more deeply about content and pedagogy and become more effective at shaping learning activities.

Peer Coach as Catalyst

• Expertise is important, being an expert is not

• Must be able to create trust for successful co-planning and reflection

• Questions- that help the teachers think more deeply about their issues- the key to effective coaching

• Must be able to balance inquiry and advocacy

Coaching Impact

• “Because of working with (the Coach), my use of technology in the classroom has gone to the next level. She has shown me ways to integrate technology past word processing…Technology is less of a focus and more of a tool that students use daily.”

Coaching Impact

“My students are more productive when involved in technology rich lessons. After doing such a lesson, and seeing them achieve, I’ve noticed I set higher expectations for them, and they have higher expectations for themselves.”

How Do We Turn Vision Into Reality

• Teachers need success implementing learning activity based on vision, need to see the impact on children IN THEIR CLASSROOM, before they will embrace and adopt the vision.

• Effective peer coaches turn vision into reality.